PlayStation 3 fails to impress crowd at E3 demo

May 12, 2006

Over at the Firing Squad, who have been checking out the E3 this year, they have a headline asking "Is the PlayStation 3 dead in the Water?". According to their crew on-site this year, they visited the Sony press conference and the console did not live up to their expectations, when they witnessed several game demos. In fact, they said some looked about like PS2 games and they definitely don't look any better than Xbox360 offerings. So what's the problem? They say it's the high price tag that the unit carries and the competition from the Xbox 360.

And then they started showing off the first launch title PS3 games, some of which were playable to press conference attendees at the end of the pre-E3 press conference. Graphically, the games looked a lot better than games on Sony's previous PS2 machine, but they certainly didn't look like a lot of the movies that Sony showed off at last year's press conference. Moreover, games like Warhawk, Resistance, and Gran Turismo HD didn't look all that much better, if at all better, than current games on Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Then came the more surprising and at the same time most disappointing news of all: pricing. Normally price points and exact release dates for new consoles don't come during E3, but later in the year and closer to the actual launch date. Not this time for the PS3 as Sony announced two separate versions, one with a 20 GB hard drive and the other with a 60 GB hard drive, which will retail for $499.99 and $599.99, respectively. A US launch date of Nov 17 was also announced.

The crowd at the conference didn't really know what to make of it. Most people had assumed that the PS3 would be expensive, and certainly more expensive than the PS2 which launched for $300 back in 2000 in the US. But no one expected that the high-end PS3 version (which besides having a bigger hard drive will have several other features that the 20 GB version won't have) would retail for twice as much as the PS2 launch price.

I spoke with several people who attended the press conference right after it concluded. Their opinion was one of shock and dismay that Sony would ask such a high price for a product that, at first glance, didn't seem to be a huge quantum leap over the Xbox 360 in terms of hardware features. One very well known game developer told me that it was a surprise that Sony would reveal the pricing for the PS3 at E3. "That was a big mistake," was the game developer's response. A well know game journalist also told me that the PS3 press conference showed that the console was dead in the water. "There will not be a PS4," according to this journalist.

The only thing that could possibly help the PS3, is the fact that (sooner or later), there will be a lot of Blu-ray movie content in addition to these games. Possibly, this dual role for the living room could make the difference. After all, the top of the line PS3 will retail for about 600 dollars, a full 400 under the cheapest Blu-ray player. Of course, the PS3 is being subsidized with games at 50 to 60 dollars a pop, but if they are not popular, Sony is going to start bleeding. Also, we have to wonder what impact PS3 sales will have on Blu-ray players. In the end, this strategy could hurt the Blu-ray format. On the other hand, it could force some dramatic price drops on stand-alone players, PC drives etc. Let's stay tuned!

Finally, we have to wonder if the external HD-DVD drive player option of the Xbox 360, wasn't such a bad idea. Especially, if the HD-DVD drive they have in mind for the Xbox, can also be plugged into a PC for use there. There is no reason it should not work that way if they wanted it to.

Source: Firing Squad